Oily Rag - Cheap Meats and Best Buys

 Read more Oily Rag articles by Frank and Muriel Newman 

Meat may seem like a luxury for those feasting off the smell of an oily rag, but this need not be the case. By being careful about the type of meat you buy, there is no reason why even thrifty eaters can’t enjoy meat - after all, feasting off the smell of an oily rag is not about going without; it’s about being sensible with what you can afford.

Not only can a family save a lot of money by being careful about the type of meat they buy, but there are great savings to be made by buying in bulk or raising your own livestock - if you have the space and if you cut it up yourself. That way you can enjoy the very best meat at a cheap meat price.

To find out which meat is really the cheapest, we sent the oily rag research team out to give us the facts. In fact they did not have to go far- they simply cyberspaced their way into an online supermarket to see which meats were the best value for the oily rag dollar. This is what they found:

Meat	Cost per kg	Meat	Cost per kg
Sausages	$6.99	Lamb chops	$18.49
Sausage meat	$7.78	Sirloin steak	$19.99
Beef shin	$12.99	Rump steak	$19.99
Gravy beef	$13.99	Beef roast	$19.99
Beef mince	$12.00	Lamb steaks	$19.99
Pork mince	$14.99	Beef schnitzel	$20.99
Blade steak	$14.99	Port steak	$21.99
Port roast	$14.99	Port schnitzel	$24.99
Lamb mince	$15.90	T-bone steak	$25.99
Top side	$15.99	Scotch fillet	$29.99
Lamb roast	$15.99	Eye fillet	$35.99

Prices will vary from day to day and between outlets. We also know that a lot of these cuts can be bought for considerably less at your local butcher for example or when on special in your local supermarket, but these prices will give you the general idea of how much cheaper the cheap meats really are – the answer is, considerably cheaper!

Still on prices, a reader has sent us a cost comparison to prove buying in bulk is not always cheaper. Here is the cost from a major supermarket chain for standard flour. The important points are that the house brand product is about half the price of the branded products, and buying the house brand 5kg bag works out to be more per kg than the 1.5kg bag!

	kg	cost	cost per kg
House Brand	1.5	$1.95	$1.30
House Brand	5.0	$6.99	$1.40
Champion	1.5	$3.78	$2.52
Edmonds	2.5	$6.49	$2.60
Edmonds	1.25	$3.65	$2.92

Please let us know how much you are paying for your meat by visiting the oily rag website (www.oilyrag.co.nz) or write to Living off the Smell of an Oily Rag, PO Box 984, Whangarei.

* Frank and Muriel Newman are the authors of Living off the Smell of an Oily Rag in NZ. Readers can submit their oily rag tips on-line at www.oilyrag.co.nz. The book is available from bookstores and online at www.oilyrag.co.nz.

Published 13th Jan 2010

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